Yahoo Finance Why This Under $1 Gold Stock Surged 13% in April
What happened
Eldorado Gold Corporation (NYSE: EGO) stock clocked its best month so far this year in April, surging 13% during the month according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. It was a much-needed respite for investors in the gold miner who've seen the shares hit new lows consistently in the past year or so.
Was Eldorado Gold's rally in April a dead cat bounce, or does it signal a reversal?
So what
Before I tell you what happened with Eldorado in April, it's important to step back a little and know what's going on with the gold miner in recent months.
In the middle of last year, Eldorado Gold shares took a hard hit when the Greek government unexpectedly announced arbitration proceedings to settle long-pending disputes over Eldorado's Kassandra assets in Greece, comprising high-potential mines like Skouries, Olympias, and Stratoni. The uncertainty spooked the market, and the company desperately needed a positive ruling to give its stock a fresh lease on life. That happened last month.
Image source: Getty Images.
On April 4, Eldorado announced that an arbitration panel in Greece has ruled in its favor in the dispute. That's exactly what Eldorado was waiting to hear, given its significant stake in Greece.
That news was the biggest trigger for Eldorado stock last month. The gold miner also reported its first-quarter numbers in the last week of April, but the market didn't react much to it.
Eldorado's first-quarter revenue climbed 17.9% and net income rose 28% year over year, backed by higher gold prices. Yet, the miner's all-in-sustaining-cost -- a key, comprehensive measure of costs for precious metal companies -- came in substantially higher at $878 per ounce of gold versus $791 per ounce in the year-ago period.
That's not all, though. Eldorado revealed that it's considering a 1-for-5 reverse stock split to avoid getting delisted from the New York Stock Exchange as its stock price has fallen below the $1 mark.
Now what
Eldorado is targeting gold production of 290,000 to 330,000 ounces in fiscal 2018, which is a nice 6% uptick at the midpoint from its 2017 production level.
That said, Eldorado's costs remain high and its production growth depends a great deal on the timely development of key projects like Kisladag in Turkey and Lamaque in Quebec. It remains to be seen whether Eldorado can bring Lamaque online by early next year and receive permits for Kisladag in the first half of 2019.
Meanwhile, Eldorado is undergoing a major management reshuffle, with Fabiana Chubbs exiting as the CFO last month. This comes close on the heels of Paul Wright quitting Eldorado's board late last year after retiring from the CEO's position in mid-2017.
To put it simply, there are too many moving parts for my comfort to have a conviction on Eldorado stock right now.
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Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.